Frequently Asked Questions

A lobbying principal should not report in its Statement of Lobbying Activities
and Expenditures the time and money it has spent on developing and airing
television commercials that do not urge members of the general public to try
to influence legislation or administrative rulemaking.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislator should not authorize an
organization to draw on the title and prestige of the legislator’s state
government office to solicit financial contributions if the organization [1] is a
lobbying principal that tries to influence legislation and spends money in
support of or in opposition to candidates for election to state offices, or [2] is
an organization with which the legislator is associated.

The Ethics Board advises that a lobbying principal not give or sell its sports
stadium luxury box tickets to an elective state official, candidate for elective
state office, state agency official, or legislative employee.

The Ethics Board advises that an agency official not, while the individual
continues to serve, enter into an agreement for employment with a lobbyist or
with an organization that employs a lobbyist. An official may, however, short
of receiving or accepting a promise of future employment, explore possibilities
for and circumstances of future employment or business relationships.

Each independent chapter of a network of organizations that spends more
than $500 in a year to employ a lobbyist must separately register as a
lobbying principal if its lobbyist makes lobbying communications on at least
five days in a six-month reporting period. If the network (1) has articles or
other written agreement of association; (2) has officers, directors, or others
who jointly direct the association’s activities; and (3) the lobbyist does not
take direction from any one chapter or combination of chapters other than

The Ethics Board advises that an organization that employs a lobbyist may
(1) neither directly pay reimbursement of expenses to a member of its board
of directors who is an agency official under the lobbying law (2) nor arrange
for another organization to pay expenses arising from the official’s activities
as a member of the organization’s board.

The Ethics Board advises that an agency official may not accept
compensation, or any other thing of pecuniary value, for serving on the board
of directors of a business corporation that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
another corporation that is a lobbying principal if the corporate parent
controls the official’s selection to the subsidiary’s board.

The Ethics Board advises that Wisconsin’s lobbying law does not prohibit the
appearance of a lobbyist’s name as the treasurer of a political action committee
on letterhead transmitting a campaign contribution to a member of the
legislature.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislator not accept from a local government
that is a lobbying principal reimbursement of expenses the legislator
incurred in traveling to Washington, D.C. on the local government’s behalf to
meet with the state’s Congressional representatives to lobby for federal
money for a local project.

(1) that neither the Ethics Code nor lobbying law restrict an individual from
running for a partisan elective state office nor establishing a personal
campaign committee for the individual’s candidacy while the individual
is a full-time appointed state public official;

While serving as a member of Wisconsin’s legislature, a candidate for
Congress may accept a campaign contribution from a lobbyist or lobbying
organization for the purpose of promoting the legislator’s candidacy for
election to Congress only during the year of the Congressional election
between June 1 and the date of the general election and only if the
Wisconsin Legislature has concluded its final floorperiod and is not in
special or extraordinary session.

The Ethics Board advises that a lobbying principal include in its semiannual
report to the Ethics Board the time an individual, who is not a
lobbyist, spends on the principal’s behalf participating, and preparing to
participate, on a committee established by a state agency to formulate
recommended changes to state statutes.

(1) Wisconsin law requires an officer or member of a union who makes a
lobbying communication on the union’s behalf on more than four days in
a reporting period to be licensed and authorized as a lobbyist if the
union reimburses the member’s employer for the individual’s wages for
the time spent in lobbying activities; and

An employee of the Legislature should not solicit lobbyists or lobbying
organizations for contributions to a community organization on whose board
the employee sits. Nor should the employee use the status or prestige of
office to solicit contributions to the organization.

The Ethics Board advises that neither a state public official’s acceptance of
cards for distribution to the public that provide health care information nor
the company’s furnishing them to the state of Wisconsin will violate
Wisconsin’s Ethics Code for state officials. This transaction will not subject
the company to Wisconsin’s lobbying law or otherwise be considered a
lobbying expense.

The Ethics Board advises that in general, neither the Ethics Code nor
lobbying law restricts your employment in the circumstances you have
described. The only restrictions are (1) that you not receive any payment
from a lobbyist or from an organization that employs a lobbyist (including
the local governmental unit if it is a lobbying principal) (§13.625, Wisconsin
Statutes); (2) that you be able to demonstrate that you have not used the
prestige or resources of your office to obtain or to perform consulting work

Neither the lobbying law nor Ethics Code will be an obstacle to state officials
taking advantage of the terms of the State of Wisconsin’s agreement with
Microsoft that provides state employees with discounts on the purchase of
computer products for home and personal use.

The Ethics Board advises that an agency official should pay a lobbying
organization on whose board of directors the official serves for any food, lodging,
or transportation the organization furnishes the official in connection
with serving on its board of directors. Because the official’s state agency
encourages its employees to participate in the organization’s activities,
routinely permits employees to participate in those activities without the
need to take leave time, and reimburses employees’ expenses for those

The Ethics Board advises that a state public official may serve as the
honorary chair of a charitable event sponsored by a lobbying principal for
which the official will receive no compensation and will pay the cost of dinner
and golf.

A legislator should not accept compensation from an organization that
employs a lobbyist even for services the legislator has provided to the
organization; and

In the case of two affiliated organizations, one employing a lobbyist and the
other not, a legislator may accept compensation for services from the latter
only if the organization can demonstrate that it acts independently of its
affiliate.

Neither the Ethics Code nor lobbying law appears to restrict a legislator’s
working as a consultant to a company that is a broker-dealer that assists
institutional money managers in identifying investment opportunities.

The Government Accountability Board advises that a judge may not accept, for
participating in a program, an award that is a glass plate on an inscribed base,
valued at $400, which is furnished by an organization that is a lobbying principal.
An appropriate disposition of the award would be donating it to the court system,
through the director of state courts.

The Government Accountability Board advises that the company may not provide
a discount to state or local government officials covered by the Ethics Code or
lobbying law, even if the discount is made available to employees of the
company’s other customers, but may provide a discount if the state or a local
government has negotiated discounts for its employees as part of a contract with
the company.

(1) Consistent with statutes that the Ethics Board administers, a company
that employs a lobbyist in Wisconsin and its employee may honor a union
contract pre-dating the employee’s candidacy for election to state government
office, that provides for the company to credit an employee for up to two years
of seniority during an unpaid leave of absence permitted under the contract.

For state and local government officialsNeither a state public official nor a local public official should accept or
purchase a ticket or admission to an event or access to a loge, skybox,
or other premium area unless the official can clearly and convincingly
demonstrate that at least one of these conditions obtains:

A legislator is free to commence a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of a law
and to seek and retain legal counsel to represent himself or herself.

If a legislator wants to join an existing lawsuit, the Ethics Board recommends that
the legislator direct a letter to the Court asking that he or she be permitted to join
the plaintiffs as a party or as amicus curiae, representing himself or herself.

A member of a state board should not participate in the consideration of
issues on which the member lobbies on his or her employer’s behalf or on
matters, which affect those issues. If conflicts arise only occasionally, they
may be satisfactorily addressed by abstaining, but when a conflict is
regularly occurring and substantial, the conflict’s cure can come only from the
board member divesting himself or herself of public position or of the private
interest that conflicts with public responsibilities.1

Members of local landfill negotiating committees or other local officials,
whose financial interests are likely to be affected by negotiations concerning
a landfill expansion, should not participate in those negotiations or any
decisions to ratify an agreement reached through those negotiations.
OEB 92-12

A lobbying principal may, without violating laws administered by the Ethics
Board, operate a conduit on behalf of campaign contributors for making contributions
to partisan elective state officials or candidates for partisan elective
state office. A lobbyist may administer a conduit. The Ethics Board recommends
that someone other than a lobbyist sign and convey the check
provided to the candidate. OEB 92-13

A candidate for elective state office may not accept anything of pecuniary
value, including salary or wages, from a business or organization that
employs a lobbyist. An individual employed by a principal may, consistent
with statutes administered by the Ethics Board, take a leave of absence from
his or her employment during the candidacy as long as the employer does not
furnish the candidate with any salary or other benefits that had not already
vested in the candidate prior to the candidacy.

The time and expenses related to the lobbying activities of individuals
employed by companies that are members of a trade association that is a
principal should be recorded as follows:

(1) If the individuals are lobbying on the trade association's behalf, and under
its supervision or control, the trade association should account for their time
and the lobbying expenses that the association incurs;

Wisconsin's lobbying law poses no restriction on a lobbyist representing
clients in negotiating a purchase of land to a state agency on a contingency
fee basis unless the matter is associated with adoption, modification, or
repeal of a rule or the Legislature’s consideration of an appropriation
earmarked for the purchase of the land at issue, or an agency’s development
of such a legislative proposal. OEB 92-21

A lobbyist may make a campaign contribution to a legislator for the purpose
of promoting the legislator’s candidacy for Congress during the year of the
election between June 1 and the date of the general election as long as the
Legislature is not in session. OEB 92-25

The lobbying law is not an impediment to a business' continuing to pay an
elected official a regular salary or wage even if the employer derives a portion
of its income from the provision of professional services to a principal, as long
as the business can clearly and convincingly demonstrate that (1) the
official’s level of compensation is unrelated to the employer's having one or
more principals as clients; (2) the principal's purchase of services is unrelated

The exemption in § 13.621(1)(c) applies only to service on ad hoc advisory
committees established by state agencies to advise with respect to rule making.
Moreover, service on a state board or committee may not be lobbying if
the individual exercises independent judgement and is not a representative of
his or her employer. OEB 92-6

The lobbying law prohibits a legislator from selling shares of stocks of a
closely-held corporation to an organization that employs a lobbyist but not to
a corporation owned by an individual who owns other corporations that
employ lobbyists. OEB 92-5

A candidate for elective state office may not receive a salary from an organization
that employs a lobbyist but may continue to receive a pension and
may participate in a group health plan if the candidate pays the premiums.
OEB 92-3

You may solicit contributions for a foundation if: (1) you do not invoke the
title or prestige of your office to solicit; (2) you do not rely upon the state's
time, facilities, supplies or services not generally available to all Wisconsin
citizens; (3) any response to your solicitations could not reasonably be
expected to influence your official judgement or be considered a reward for
past actions; and (4) you do not solicit any lobbyist or lobbyist's employer.
Eth. Bd. 640.

Non-lobbyists need not maintain an individual daily log of activities. A
principal need only maintain a log for the time of its employees and individuals
engaged in lobbying activities under the supervision or control of the
organization. Costs incurred by a principal for research must be reported
only if the cost would not have been incurred but for lobbying. Eth. Bd. 641

The lobbying law prohibits a lobbyist from making a campaign contribution
during a prohibited time period if it is from a personal campaign committee
account over which the lobbyist exerts control or which acts at the direction
or as an agent of the lobbyist. Eth. Bd. 682

The lobbying law does not prohibit a lobbying principal from awarding a
scholarship to the child of an elected state official as long as the scholarship
is available to the general public. The scholarship should be reported as a
gift on the official's Statement of Economic Interests. Eth. Bd. 684

A political action committee [PAC] that is not controlled by an organization
employing a lobbyist, either in law or in fact, may, consistent with laws
administered by the Board, make a campaign contribution at any time.

The Ethics Board advises that the lobbying law's restrictions on the timing of
campaign contributions applies to a lobbying principal whether the principal
is a corporation or an unincorporated association. A principal is subject to
the lobbying law's restrictions on campaign contributions whether it makes a
contribution directly or through its alter ego or agent, such as a PAC.
Corporate lobbying principals that have created and registered PACs under
§11.38, Wisconsin Statutes, may utilize those PACs to make campaign

1. A lobbyist may, without restriction from the lobbying law, advise a
lobbying organization’s members, or their employees, about making
campaign contributions as long as the lobbyist is acting independent of
any candidate or candidate’s campaign committee.

A lobbying organization may, consistent with Wisconsin’s lobbying law,
purchase services from a business wholly owned by a state legislator only if
the organization’s offer to purchase can reasonably be said to be available to
the general public. This means that the organization should be able to
demonstrate clearly and convincingly that its purchase of services is the
result of an orderly, established competitive bidding process open to a
substantial number of similar businesses, not unduly limited geographically,

A lobbying organization may, consistent with Wisconsin’s lobbying law, purchase
services from a business wholly owned by a state legislator only if the
organization’s offer to purchase can reasonably be said to be available to the
general public. Even if the organization can demonstrate that its offer to
purchase is available to the general public, the better course would be for the
organization not to engage in business with a company wholly owned by a state

A lobbying principal may not furnish a legislator transportation to visit a
facility in another state. A principal may make transportation available to
the state under either of the following circumstances: (1) the State pays the
full cost of the transportation; or (2) the State procures the transportation, at
any or no cost, for a governmental purpose neither at the behest of a specific
governmental official-beneficiary nor with the intention of a specific
governmental official’s benefiting from the procurement.

A state agency may solicit donations for the agency’s gifts and grants account
as long as the agency solicits donations only from individuals, businesses,
and organizations that do not do business with the agency, are not regulated
by the agency, and are neither lobbyists nor lobbying principals. The agency
should not use solicited funds for rewarding state public officials. Consistent
with statutes administered by the Ethics Board, the agency may use solicited
funds to reward other employees for exceptional accomplishment or

An association is a lobbying principal subject to Wisconsin’s lobbying law if
(1) it reimburses a member for lost wages in connection with lobbying on the
association’s behalf and (2) the member communicates with state officials
other than the legislators from the member’s own district, on more than 4
days in a 6-month reporting period.

A lobbying principal may not, consistent with the lobbying law, reimburse its
members’ campaign contributions that are furnished at a time not permitted
to the principal.

Neither the Ethics Code nor lobbying law is an impediment to the production
and airing of a videotape about a public official as long as the video
production company can clearly and convincingly demonstrate that (1) the
production is not at the behest of or initiation of the official and (2) editorial
direction is independent of the official and others operating on his or her
behalf, including his or her appointees and campaign committee.

An elected state official may accept compensation for participating as a
commentator on state government issues on a weekly television program as
long as the company that owns the television station operates independent of
its corporate parent, which is a lobbying principal. Unless an official has
evidence to the contrary, he or she may rely on the television stations’s representation
that in asking the official to appear on the television program it
has not acted in consultation or cooperation with, or at the request or

A lobbying principal may, consistent with the lobbying law, send a letter to
its members urging their support of a partisan elected state official running
for reelection:
1. at any time if the communication is not a campaign contribution
under laws administered by the Elections Board and the principal
undertakes the communication independent of and without consultation,
understanding, or agreement with the candidate; or
2. only during periods of time permitted under the lobbying law if the

An individual is a lobbyist if he or she engages in activities that constitute
lobbying under the lobbying law, even if the activities are merely an outgrowth
of legal representation. Lobbying includes attempting to influence or
affect legislation or administrative rules, but does not include attempting to
influence other kinds of agency decisions. Discussions with state agencies
concerning the use of conventional construction bidding as opposed to
privatization for prisons, attempts to get a state agency to make payments

A lobbyist may not furnish personal services to the campaign of an individual
running for partisan elective state office if those services are not reportable
as a campaign contribution under the campaign finance law and if such
services consist of labor for which a campaign would have to pay individuals
if they did not volunteer. OEB 93-3 (January 27, 1993)

A legislator may not accept anything of pecuniary value from a lobbying
principal. To the extent that a referendum committee is an intermediary,
agent, or alter ego for a lobbying principal, a legislator should treat the referendum
committee as if it were a lobbying principal and be guided by the
advice given in 1992 Wis Eth Bd 26.

The Ethics Board advises that a political action committee that is a separate
legal entity not acting subject to the control of a lobbying principal is not
subject to the restrictions of the lobbying law.
OEB 93-6 (May 7, 1993)

A state legislator may accept a campaign contribution from a lobbyist or
lobbying organization for the purpose of promoting his or her candidacy for
federal office only during the year of the election between June 1 and the date
of the general election. OEB 93-9 (November 3, 1993)

A. Regardless of whether a lobbyist is acting on behalf of the organization
that employs the lobbyist or independent of it, the lobbyist need not account
to the Ethics Board:

1. For time the lobbyist spends participating as a member in the
deliberations either of a rule-making advisory committee established
by a state agency under §227.13 or of a committee of the
Legislature or

A state public official may use his or her official letterhead to solicit contributions
on behalf of a not-for-profit organization with which the official has
no other connection. The solicitation should be structured so that it is evident
that a contribution would be unlikely to influence the official's judgment.
It would be unreasonable for anyone to believe the official's judgment
would be influenced if the identities of who contributes and who does not are
unknown to the official. The solicitation letter may not be sent to lobbyists or

The Ethics Board advises that the lobbying law does not pose an obstacle to
an official’s spouse's employment as a lobbyist. However, an official should
avoid placing himself or herself in a position in which a conflict of interest
may arise. In instances of occasional and infrequent conflicts, an official can
avoid a violation of the Ethics Code by refraining from any official discussions
or votes on matters on which the spouse's employer lobbies or has a
demonstrated interest before the official’s agency. An official should also

This is in response to your letter in which you have asked a number of general questions
concerning application of laws administered by the Ethics Board to a 501 (c) (3) or 501
(c) (4) organization. The answers pertain equally to a 501 (c) (3) or 501 (c) (4) organization.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislator may not ask a lobbyist to pass
along information to others about the legislator’s desire for a campaign
contribution except during the time that the legislator may accept a campaign
contribution from a lobbyist. A legislative campaign committee may solicit a
campaign contribution from a lobbyist at any time. A legislative campaign
committee’s employee, not employed by the Legislature, may solicit a campaign
contribution from a lobbyist for a legislative candidate at any time if the

An organization that employs a lobbyist in Wisconsin may furnish an elected
state official the opportunity to narrate a public service announcement and
purchase airtime for its dissemination, when the dissemination is not proximate to
an election at which the official is or is likely to be a candidate.

The Ethics Board advises that a state official may accept food, drink, and entertainment
from anyone as long as the person extending the invitation is not a lobbyist
or a lobbying principal and the official can demonstrate that the person
made the offer for a reason unrelated to the official’s holding or having held a
government position.

A legislator may appear in a lobbying principal’s video for employees and
directors of the organization’s members on the importance of talking about how
the member institutions serve members and communities but the lobbying
organization should not disseminate the video proximate to an election in which
the legislator is or is likely to be a candidate.

1) That the lobbying law does not prohibit an elected state official's
acceptance of a salary as president of a union paid to the official by a
business on the union’s behalf, even if the business employs a lobbyist;

2) That the lobbying law does not prohibit the business to pay an official's
salary related to the official's union duties; and

1. A state public official attending a conference or convention may accept
educational or informational material or other item for the purpose of
conveying it to the State of Wisconsin for the use or benefit of a state
office or agency.

A lobbying principal may, consistent with the lobbying law, urge its members to
contribute to a candidate, as long as the organization is not acting in concert with
the candidate. A lobbying principal may not bundle and furnish contributions
from its members to legislators except between June 1 and the general election
in the year of the member’s election and, then, only if the Legislature has
concluded its final floorperiod and is not in special or extraordinary session.

The Ethics Board advises that a legislative employee not rent an apartment
or a house with a lobbyist unless (1) the lobbyist is the employee’s relative
or (2) the employee and the lobbyist are part of the same domestic unit.

The Ethics Board advises that a member of a state board should either (1) not
accept employment by a business or organization that employs a lobbyist or (2)
notify the board of which the official is a member that the official is withdrawing
from any participation in the modification of the board’s rules.

Based upon the facts as you presented them, you may be employed as an attorney, while also serving as a Representative to the Wisconsin Assembly, provided you comply with applicable laws and adhere to the advice set forth herein. You may also request an opinion from the Attorney General regarding issues of concern with respect to the Open Records Law. As an attorney licensed to practice law in Wisconsin, you may also seek an opinion from the Office of Lawyer Regulation regarding other legal-based ethical considerations.